The author doesn't seem to take into account Luke's snowsuit. Given that we are in a highly advanced past, Luke assuredly has some form of temperature-control body glove (as snow/sand troopers do), as well as the simple dynamics of wearing cold-weather clothing. In addition, his clothing (due to the constant snow) almost certainly has some form of waterproofing, diminishing the cold-transfer effects of being inside the tauntaun. The tauntaun would also serve the purpose of transferring it's core body warmth to Luke for a while. One would think that the tauntaun would have excellent insulation, as they normally spend the night in those temperatures, so it wouldn't lose heat as quickly as the author thinks it will. As for the bile and feces, Han didn't appear to cut into any organs, so there would be no problem there.

As for Han and the shelter, one would presume every tauntaun saddle is outfitted with cold-weather survival gear for the express danger of being caught out in the wild. It would have to be simple and easily built, in case the person caught outside was injured.

I'll have to check someday, but I thought the scene from the next day showed Han standing by a tent as a search ship flew past. Maybe he put Luke in there after using the TaunTaun as a temporary warming spot.

roughridersfan:I'll have to check someday, but I thought the scene from the next day showed Han standing by a tent as a search ship flew past. Maybe he put Luke in there after using the TaunTaun as a temporary warming spot.

pretty mutch article fails to state lukes also generating his own heat his own clothing and that well you siad the rest. just so many varibles in that seen i saw it based as luke beat the odds.

roughridersfan:I'll have to check someday, but I thought the scene from the next day showed Han standing by a tent as a search ship flew past. Maybe he put Luke in there after using the TaunTaun as a temporary warming spot.

Just took a look. Not a tent and it may be the TaunTaun covered in snow, but I'm not sure. There were some antennae behind it. Han grabbed some stuff off the TaunTaun after sticking Luke in it, so maybe he was setting up a better shelter for him and Luke.

TeamEd:Ok Farkers, I've got a question: how does Han use Luke's lightsaber to open up the Tauntaun? I thought you needed to use the force to wield a lightsaber.

Imagine holding an empty aluminum can or toilet paper roll. If you had to do something simple, like point it and slice open a tauntaun, you probably could. Now, imagine holding it and using the meter-long weightless blade to fight. You'd probably lose a limb.

The author makes the assumption that the tauntaun hasn't involved a passive heating mechanism that continues after death. I assume that a couple billion years on an icelocked planet is going to lead to some interesting adaptions to either deal with the temperatures or to circumanavigate them.

So theoretically the dead tauntuan may have continued to stay heated for a long time after death.

Alephnaught:The author makes the assumption that the tauntaun hasn't involved a passive heating mechanism that continues after death.

I doubt it really needs one.They didn't spend the night in the tauntaun, they spent it in a shelter that Han built. Step one was getting Luke out of the windchill and keeping him warm while the building was happening.

If the Tauntaun gives temporary warmth and shelter for an hour, that's enough to make an Igloo with the help of a light saber. .

Endive WombatAs such, none of my computers at home will load any Gawker based sites. I have no idea why. No matter the OS, or browser. Amazing huh?

They only work if you have Javascript enabled or if your browser pretends to be Google.So I would look into something filtering out Gawker's bullshiat Javascript:Because - If you don't pretend to be Google - the content, its markup, scripts and CSS will all be stored inside a giant Javascript variable which gets inserted into the page by a script when your browser loads the page.

Really, if you care about functional web design, looking at the source code of a Gawker site will make you want to shoot someone, for example the pointy-haired marketing drones who probably were the ones who came up with that general concept.

Old enough to know betterOne would suspect with their technology, they have some pretty fancy versions of heat packs built into their gear. No doubt Han packed some extras before he ran out into the storm.

Yeah, given that he's Han Effing Solo, it's a pretty sure bet that he was packing heat.

So if I die they're going to stick a thermometer in my ass to establish the time of death?

I think I'll buy a glass eye and keep up there just in case. Ducky will come in and try to measure my ass temperature, he'll notice an obstruction then move his face closer to get a better look at what's blocking the thermometer, that's when he'll see it staring back at him.

SwiftFox:Bad assumption that matching Earth mammals temperature is 37C/98.6F. Most mammals are just above 100F, humans an exception.

Even more flawed is the assumption that Luke and Han are human. Cosmetically yes but since they clearly didn't evolve on Earth there's nothing to say that they aren't cold blooded or something else weird.

Alephnaught:The author makes the assumption that the tauntaun hasn't involved a passive heating mechanism that continues after death. I assume that a couple billion years on an icelocked planet is going to lead to some interesting adaptions to either deal with the temperatures or to circumanavigate them.

So theoretically the dead tauntuan may have continued to stay heated for a long time after death.

Perhaps a bacteriological process that continually generates heat even if the animal is stationary. The bacteria, like gut flora, would continue to live long after the host dies, feeding off of the dead flesh.